ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2026
The contribution of social and economic factors to accelerated biological aging differences between non-Hispanic Black and White adults in the Health and Retirement Study.
Article in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBiological aging predicts health outcomes beyond chronological age. The relative contribution of social, economic, and health factors to biological aging differences between Black and White adults remains unclear.
methodsIn a cross-sectional analysis of 2086 community-dwelling adults aged ≥60 years from the 2016 Health and Retirement Study (1757 non-Hispanic White; 329 non-Hispanic Black), biological age was measured using DNA methylation-based GrimAge. Accelerated aging was defined as having a biological age older than expected for one's chronological age. We used logistic regression to assess the impact of race on accelerated aging and decomposition analysis to determine factors explaining differences in accelerated aging between Black and White participants. Covariate blocks were: age, education, wealth, social frailty assessed using a composite index measuring social connections, financial autonomy, neighborhood environment, volunteering and employment engagement, behavioral factors (physical activity, alcohol use, sleep disorder, body mass index); medical conditions; and physical disability.
resultsBlack participants had higher accelerated aging than White participants (57.1% vs 41.8%; standardized mean difference, 0.3). In the staged decomposition of the biological aging gap, age and education explained 21.1% of the difference. The cumulative explained share rose to 51.8% with wealth, 77.6% with social frailty, 80.3% with health behaviors, 90.5% with medical conditions, and 91.6% with physical disability. In multivariable logistic regression adjusting for all domains, the racial difference was no longer significant.
conclusionsSocial and economic factors largely explained accelerated biological aging differences between non-Hispanic Black and White adults. These findings identify policy-relevant targets to improve healthy aging.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.